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Translated by W. Moore and H. A. Wilson
St Gregory of Nyssa Resources Online and in Print
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This Part: 128 Pages
Page 83
"This, then, is what the man has to say who substitutes,--for we may not speak of it as application,' lest any one should blame for such madness men holy and chosen for the preaching of godliness, so as to reproach their doctrine with a fall into such extravagance,--who substitutes his own mind [705] for the intention of the Apostles! With what confusion are they not filled, who refer their own nonsense to the memory of the saints! With what absurdity do they not abound, who imagine that the man emptied himself' to become man, and who maintain that He Who by obedience humbled himself' to take the form of a servant was made conformable to men even before He took that form upon Him! Who, pray, ye most reckless of men, when he has the form of a servant, takes the form of a servant? and how can any one empty himself' to become the very thing which he is? You will find no contrivance to meet this, bold as you are in saying or thinking things uncontrivable. Are you not verily of all men most miserable, who suppose that a man has suffered death for all men, and ascribe your own redemption to him? For if it is not of the Word Who was in the beginning and was God that the blessed Peter speaks, but of him who was seen,' and who emptied Himself,' as Basil says, and if the man who was seen emptied Himself' to take the form of a servant,' and He Who emptied Himself' to take the form of a servant,' emptied Himself to come into being as man, then the man who was seen emptied himself to come into being as man [706] . The very nature of things is repugnant to this; and it is expressly contradicted by that writer [707] who celebrates this dispensation in his discourse concerning the Divine Nature, when he says not that the man who was seen, but that the Word Who was in the beginning and was God took upon Him flesh, which is equivalent in other words to taking the form of a servant.' If, then, you hold that these things are to be believed, depart from your error, and cease to believe that the man emptied himself' to become man. And if you are not able to persuade those who will not be persuaded, destroy their incredulity by another saying, a second decision against them. Remember him who says, Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.' There is none among men who will appropriate this phrase to himself. None of the saints that ever lived was the Only-begotten God and became man:--for that is what it means to take the form of a servant,' being in the form of God.' If, then, the blessed Peter speaks of Him Who emptied Himself' to take the form of a servant,' and if He Who was in the form of God' did empty Himself' to take the form of a servant,' and if He Who in the beginning was God, being the Word and the Only-begotten God, is He Who was in the form of God,' then the blessed Peter speaks to us of Him Who was in the beginning and was God, and expounds to us that it was He Who became Lord and Christ.
[705] Reading heautou for the heauton of Oehler's text, for which no authority is alleged by the editor, and which is probably a mere misprint.
[706] The argument here takes the form of a reductio ad absurdum; assuming that S. Peter's reference is to the "visible man," and bearing in mind S. Basil's words that S. Peter refers to Him Who "emptied Himself," it is said "then it was the visible man' who emptied himself.' But the purpose of that emptying' was the taking the form of a servant,' which again is the coming into being as man: therefore the visible man' emptied himself,' to come into being as man, which is absurd." The wording of S. Basil's statement makes the argument in a certain degree plausible;--if he had said that S. Peter referred to the Son, not in regard to his actual essence, but in regard to the fact that He "emptied Himself" to become man, and as so having "emptied Himself" (which is no doubt what he intended his words to mean), then the reductio ad absurdum would not apply; nor would the later arguments, by which Eunomius proceeds to prove that He Who "emptied Himself" was no mere man, but the Word Who was in the beginning, have any force as against S. Basil's statement.
[707] S. John i. 1 sqq.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/nyssa/against-eunomius-2.asp?pg=83
